President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has offered CPN Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal the posts of prime minister after a year and single chairman of the ruling party after the next general convention.
A party source confided with Setopati that President Bhandari offered Dahal to sign an agreement with CPN Chairman and Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli during their meeting at Shital Niwas for around two hours Tuesday evening.
"President reminded Dahal during the meeting that the two chairmen unified the party and pointed that their agreement is necessary to save party unity," the source claimed. "President apparently told Dahal to become PM after a year to lead the election government and to become single chairman after the general convention. Dahal replied that it was too late now and added that Oli must quit one of the two top posts."
The source claimed that President Bhandari said that she is ready to sit as guarantor of the agreement with Oli as in the past and assured that she will convince Oli if Oli were to obstruct implementation of the agreement.
The ruling party is again facing a grave crisis with Dahal claiming that PM Oli has proposed to split the ruling party even as Oli is in minority in parliamentary party, secretariat, standing committee and central committee.
Dahal, Khanal, Nepal and Shrestha have been together in the fight against Oli all the time while Gautam keeps on changing camps. Gautam is angry with Oli now after he was not inducted in the Cabinet in the latest Cabinet reshuffle.
Sources close to Oli, however, have claimed that Dahal has demanded the post of PM.
Dahal is reportedly aggrieved about the Karnali dispute, Cabinet reshuffle, Oli's meeting with Chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Samant Kumar Goel, murder of a party cadre in Parsa and other issues.
Oli and Dahal had signed a five-point agreement at the time of unification of the then CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) on May 17, 2018. The two parties had unified to form CPN the next day on the basis of the five-point agreement.
The fourth point of the agreement mentioned that the two chairmen will lead the government as necessary on the basis of equality and equal period.
But Dahal had relinquished his claim for the post of PM after the two chairmen signed an agreement on division of responsibilities in presence of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on November 20, 2019.
Dahal was made chairman with executive rights. Oli and Dahal were to remain chairmen, and Oli to continue to be ranked top but Oli had handed over the executive rights to Dahal.
Dahal was to lead the party and chair party meetings while Oli would lead the government through the current term of House of Representatives, according to the agreement.
The party was then on the verge of split with Dahal aggrieved that Oli continues to run even the party unilaterally and the overwhelming majority of members during the last standing committee meeting seeking resignation of PM Oli.
The two chairmen then formed a six-strong task force in August to resolve internal dispute in the party. The standing committee meeting then took decision on the basis of the report submitted by the task force that recommended that Oli would serve the full five-year term as PM and Dahal would take the wheel of the party.
Dahal was to be fully active in party works but required to consult PM Oli who will remain a sort of ceremonial chairman. Similarly, PM Oli was required to move the government works forward consulting Dahal.
But Oli has unilaterally made appointments of ambassadors and reshuffled Cabinet without endorsement of Dahal since the standing committee decision.
